Fan Creek Campground, on the Nestucca River Corridor about 25 miles west of McMinnville, Oregon, is closed. The BLM announced it on August 13, 2026, and the reason is not fire: a mother bear and her cub have been working the campground for food and have stopped avoiding people.
The announcement quotes Tillamook Field Manager Janet Satter: “The bears have been threatening to visitors, and they do not seem to be afraid of humans. For everyone’s safety, the campground is closed for the time being.” The BLM says it is working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on it.
“For the time being” is the whole duration statement. There is no posted end date, no rescission date, and no review date, which is normal for a wildlife closure and different from the fire closures that have dominated this summer. A fire closure usually carries a date because the incident has a shape. A food-conditioned bear does not.
Dovre and Alder Glen are open
The announcement names both as alternatives on the same corridor and says both take reservations. The recreation area page adds Elk Bend, for four campgrounds and 37 campsites total along the Nestucca River National Back Country Byway. One planning note from that page: download your maps first, because “there is no cell reception in the drainage.”
Where the closure is written down, and where it is not
This is the part worth carrying past this one campground. We read the BLM’s own Nestucca River Recreation Area page on August 18, 2026, five days after the closure went out. It still reads “Camping is limited to Alder Glen, Dovre, Fan Creek, and Elk Bend Campgrounds,” with no closure notice on it.
So the site page and the announcement feed disagree right now, and the announcement is the newer of the two. If you plan off the visit page alone, you would drive to Fan Creek.
The practical version: check the district’s announcements, not just the page for the place. For this corridor that is the BLM Northwest Oregon District. Reservation platforms are a second signal but not a substitute, and a campground can be closed on the ground before any page catches up.
If you are headed there anyway
The BLM’s own guidance in the announcement is short: “giving bears space, securing food and knowing what to do before you enter public lands.” If you do meet one, it says to “stay calm, speak in a steady voice, back away slowly and do not make sudden movements,” and to report the encounter to the field office as soon as it is safe. That last one is worth doing even when it feels like a bother. A field office acts on what it hears about.
For what is open across the rest of the state and which agency sets the rule on each piece of it, see our Oregon free camping page and the free camping hub.
And the standing rule: the sign at the gate and the district office on the phone are the current answer. They beat this page, and right now they beat the BLM’s own site page too.